From Organizing to Forced Deporting; Iran Has Deported More Than 20,000 Afghanistani Migrants in 15 Days
By Mohajir Times
The border guard authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have announced that 20 thousand illegal immigrants have been arrested and deported from this country in the past 15 days. Majid Shoja, the commander of Khorasan Razavi border guard, said that 20 thousand illegal Afghan immigrants were handed over to Afghanistan representatives after being deported through the Dogharon border. In explaining this report to ISNA news agency, General Shoja said: “In order to deal with the illegal presence of foreign nationals in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the border guards and the police inside the country took legal action by identifying the unauthorized persons present.”
On the other hand, Colonel Javad Rafiei, the deputy of the Border Guard Command of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, also announced the deportation of 11,669 Afghan immigrants during the past week. He called the reasons for the deportation of these immigrants as “not having a legal residence permit” and emphasized that they were deported through the “Miilk Border” terminal after going through legal procedures.
Earlier, the Iranian authorities had emphasized that they will identify, detain and deport “illegal immigrants.” In recent days, the deportation of Afghanistan refugees from Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey has increased. According to the figures and statistics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the last 9 months, more than 520,000 Afghanistani immigrants have been expelled and returned to their country through the Dogharon and Taybad borders.
These deportations are taking place while the circles of foreign nationals' affairs of the Ministry of Interior of Iran and the National Organization of Iranian Migration, which was recently launched to organize the situation of immigrants, stated that this organization will improve and organize the situation of immigrants. However, the situation of organizing the immigrants is not clear yet, and recently the forced deportations have increased.
On the other hand, in 2022, the General Administration of Foreign Nationals and Immigrant Affairs and the Ministry of Interior of Iran launched the issuance of “Census Sheet” to a large number of Afghan immigrants who did not have immigration documents. In this plan, a large number of Afghanistani immigrants were issued a census card as an immigration identification document and also to prevent forced deportations by the police. Therefore, the census sheets issued by the Department of Foreign Nationals did not bring any ease to Afghanistani migrants in Iran.
Meanwhile, sources tell Mohajir Times that the police are also deporting many immigrants who have census sheets to Afghanistan. These sources add that the police officers never accept the census sheet. They say with surprise that “how is this the immigration law, they issued the census sheet yesterday themselves and today they still do not accept it.” One of the Afghanistani migrants, who lives in Kashan district of Isfahan province, tells Mohajir Times about deportation of his younger brother with the census sheet:
“My younger brother is about 15, he had a census sheet as well, and was deported to Afghanistan by the Kashan police. When my brother went to football with his peers, he was arrested by the police and taken to the relevant police station while returning home, and of course, he had a copy of the census sheet with him. I got the news that my brother was arrested by the police and immediately, my wife took his original census sheet and took it to the relevant police station. When my wife delivers the census sheet to the soldier at the gate, the soldier told her that these sheets are not valid and the soldier tears the sheet and throws it in the trash. After all, my wife said to the policeman, what kind of behavior are you doing? She wanted to go to the police chief to complain why the soldier tore up the census sheet, but she was not allowed inside by the same soldier and guards.
She returned home and again she and my sister go together to free my brother. When they went to the relevant police station to release my brother, they don't let them in again. Finally, they tell them to go and come back tomorrow. They went to the police station again the next day, maybe they will release this detained child, but all these goings and comings were in vain. When they went to the police station, the police told them that my brother was transferred to Isfahan camp. Finally, my wife and my sister told them, at least we should tell the police chief that the soldier tore up this person's census sheet and threw it in the trash. But, they still did not allow them to go inside and said that Afghan have no right to go to inside, and go to Isfahan camp.
In the afternoon of the same day, my brother contacted from the Isfahan camp to send me the cash for the bus rental and camp expenses. The next day, my wife rented an exclusive car for 800,000 tomans equal $16 to deliver cash to my brother from Kashan to Isfahan camp. My wife has thousands of stories about the misbehavior of the Isfahan camp with Afghanistan women and immigrants, which unfortunately will not be heard by anyone. I myself have a census sheet, but I live here with thousands of fears and apprehensions. Honestly, when I come back from work, I count the moments where the police will arrest me. I feel like a criminal and I say to myself that immigration is a kind of crime that we have committed due to the fate of times and dark days.”
Nevertheless, the discriminatory behavior of the police towards Afghan immigrants and sometimes the immigration law has always been widely criticized that even the police authorities do not easily accuse the perpetrators of misbehavior in cases of violations or bad behavior. Meanwhile, Dr. Sadegh Zibakalam, author, researcher and professor of political science at Tehran University and the former director of the science and research unit of Islamic Azad University of Iran, criticizes the discrimination and bad treatment of Iranians with Afghanistani migrants in a media interview. He criticizes in this video, “When the government does not grant any rights to Afghans. An Afghanistani who has lived in this country for five years, ten years, twenty years and thirty years. These arrest and deported them out from Dogharoun border as easy as pie.” You shout and say that this Afghan should have a right. In this speech, Dr. Sadegh Zibakalam compares Iran's immigration process with European countries. (Watch Dr. Sadegh's words in the video above).
Thus, in 2012, Dr. Sadegh apologized to the three million Afghanistan immigrants living in Iran in a speech at Qom University, and his statement was met with strong reactions from the student mobilization of Qom University. Dr. Zibakalam said in his speech at Qom University: “I apologize to three million Afghans for the atrocities you are doing to them, I apologize to the Arab states of the Persian-Gulf for your disrespect, you have to be polite to them.”
